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A winning start

Marseille airport is the latest location for me to use mobile technology to record my thoughts and the satisfaction of an away win in Europe is very much at the forefront of everyone's thoughts.

Montpellier is a very nice city, the centre's architecture and al fresco bar, restaurant and cafe culture making it a thoroughly enjoyable place to visit.

As the weather turned 'muggy' we made our way up to the stadium for the main event. Located in the upper tier and with flag in place (I understand it made numerous TV appearances!) the atmosphere steadily grew as the French champions played host.

The penalty was disappointing of course, but I did feel they might have scored a little too early and it could work to our advantage as the game developed.

Within three minutes Poldi and Gerve put the finishing touches on two fine moves and the travelling Gooners enjoyed the resulting jostle with gusto!

At half time I think we all felt a similar second period could see us go on to win fairly comfortably. The reality however, could not have been further from the truth.

We enjoyed some moments going forward but seriously had to dig in to come away with the three points. A combination of good defending and goalkeeping and a little bit of luck saw us through on the night.

So, a satisfying night's work brought another highly-enjoyable European jolly to a close as thoughts now turn to the tough trip to Manchester on Sunday.

Last year's corresponding fixture saw us extremely unlucky to come away with nothing after playing well. A similar performance would suit me on Sunday, with a more positive result of course.

Frank

Frank Stubbs in Montpellier

Copyright 2015 The Arsenal Football Club plc. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source19 Sep 2012

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